Tips include proper nozzle removal, reducing extrusion filament issues as the human eye may not be able to see 75 micron layers coming out and filament flow can seize, and knowing that the "calibration print" is a super useful "hacking tool" for accomplishing all of this.

Jan 8, 2013

Hot Melt Glue Gun HMA (Hot Melt Adhesive) Extruder to make a 3D Printer. It is based on a $3 Walmart Low Temperature Mini Hot Glue Gun. The extruder is driven around by a 3 axis CNC router made from plans from http://solsylva.com/cnc/13x13x5.shtml . The whole thing is driven by an Arduino Uno with a custom set of Shields, a single stepper driver based on a ULN2803 and a parallel port adapter board to drive a 3 axis HobbyCNC stepper driver board. I am using the Teacup firmware that has been customized to driver the ULN2803 stepper driver for the extruder (E axis). All is orchestrated by Pronteface on the PC side with G-Code by Slic3r (converts STL 3D Model to G-Code for Pronterface).